54 One of KKHJ's sig- nificant promotions is Kindervision, a child safety and anti-abduc- tion program endorsed by police authorities. Free ID videos are given to over 5,000 children at an annual arena event; taping is also featured at many station remotes. Major crowd-pleasing events are featured year-round on KKHJ. The annual Huntington Park street fair draws over 400,000 in a single weekend. 1992-1994: KKHJ was a very promotional station; over 300 remotes, fiestas and events were produced each year in conjunction with local and national accounts. Los Angeles, 1992...
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One of KKHJ's sig-nifi cant promotions is Kindervision, a child safety and anti-abduc-tion program endorsed by police authorities. Free ID videos are given to over 5,000 children at an annual arena event; taping is also featured at many station remotes.
Major crowd-pleasing events are featured year-round on KKHJ. The annual Huntington Park street fair draws over 400,000 in a single weekend.
1992-1994: KKHJ was a very promotional station; over 300 remotes, fi estas and events were produced each year in conjunction with local and national accounts.
Los Angeles, 1992...
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The LA Times recognized the team approach to pro-gramming KLVE and which has contributed to nearly three years as LA’s #1 radio station.
50,000 watt KTNQ covers the Southland better than any other Spanish Language radio station.
Frequent community celebrations are featured on KTNQ and KLVE. This is the broadcast trailer at the September 16 cel-ebration attended by over 100,000 persons in Los Angeles' San Gabriel Valley.
Events such as this NALEO citizenship seminar, attended by nearly 5,000 per-sons, are typical of KTNQ’s community involvement.
Los Angeles, 1995...
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SUMMER, 1996
Developing a News/Talk station... 1996
KTNQ’s fi rst Arbitron book as a full-time talker showed immediate growth to a position of dominance among Spanish stations on the AM band!
In the Summer 1996 book, KTNQ regis-tered a 2.8, 0.1 away from English talk station KFI in 25-54.
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Developing a News/Talk station... 1996
In early 1997, R&R featured the Heftel talk stations in an article.
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Developing a News/Talk station... 1996As KTNQ grew, the basic formulas of local involvement and community awareness that “10-20 AM” had pioneered for the 25-54 Hispanic audience were applied progressively to the larger of the Heftel Broadcasting AM stations in New York, Miami, Chicago and Dallas. Again, national attention was attracted to the ambitious project of building full service radio stations virtually from scratch in most of these markets. This interview in “Talkers Magazine” in December of 1997 details the philosophy of the programming applied to the HBC stations.
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Part of rebuilding KTNQ was redesigning and equipping the stu-
dios to do talk. The sta-tion was the original beta tester for RCS’s
“Talk Back” call screen-ing and studio adminis-
tration software.
Taking talent from where least expected has been part of the KTNQ formula. Looking for entertainers, the station found a former music morning man and a Mexico City gang member turned minister and psy-chologist and teamed them for afternoon drive.
Developing a News/Talk station... 1996
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In August, 1998, Radio Ink Magazine published its selection of the best program directors in the United States. The special issue listed the top pro-grammers in groupings determined by market size. Here is the cover (observe the programmer peeking from within the letter “K” in the magazine’s logo) as well as the write-up, letter of selec-tion and the HBC press release. It is both unusual and rewarding for a programmer of a Spanish language sta-tion to be included; no other Hispanic sta-tion programmer was selected in 1998.
Radio Ink programming award.
David Gleason has been the PD of Spanish-language KTNQ since 1995. He started his Radio career in 1959 at the age of 13 in Cleveland, Ohio. In 1964, the owner of HCRMI in Quito, Ecuador, decided to make him the PD. Gleason just happened to be that owner, which made programming deci sions easy. In 1978, Gleason took a risk while pro gramming a station in San Juan. He changed a beau tiful-music station to 100 percent salsa. Since 1995, Gleason has programmed KTNQ, which he converted from an aging personality-and-music sta-
tion to all-talk. Gleason says about commitment, “A Spanish -language News/talk station requires a special degree of involvement and dedica-tion. The format is new in the U.S., and 100 percent of our hours are locally programmed.” Gleason is dedicated to training many of the talent at KTNQ have no Radio experience. “A PD must coach talent to be both individuals and part of creating stationality,” he says. “Meetings and coaching intended to promote stationality must not give the impression of demanding conformity, so they often are like pep rallies where everyone is there to root for the team, and individual concerns are
laid aside.”
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Radio Ink programming award.
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The growing importance of the Hispanic market in Southern California prompted the AMA to sponsor a seminar on Hispanic-targeted media in 1993.
Each year, by Act of Congress, the USIA is required to obtain a report and evaluation from an independent consultant on the operation of the Radio Martí pro-gram.
In 1986, this project was con-ducted with the assistance of Miami broadcast veteran Julio Rumbaut.
Consulting... 1986.
Industry Seminar: 1993
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Tom Rounds, who origi-nated the legendary “Amer-
ican Top 40” program “now owns Radio Express, Inc. in Burbank, Califor-nia. Together with the distribution of the Rick Dees countdowns, his own World Chart Show (heard in over 90 countries) and librar-ies, “TR” also produces the Radio-Play series of new-release and “breaker” music for international and domestic radio.
Every week, new releases arrive from Puerto Rico, Argentina, Colombia, Venezuela, Mexico, Spain, Chile and Mexico. Charts from all over Latin America are reviewed on the Net and in trade publications. The best new songs and the regional break-outs are
included in the weekly editions of Exitos Express (Spanish ballad, pop and rock) and Tropical Express (salsa, meren-gue, cumbia and vallenato).
Over 300 editions of Exitos Express have been released, containing in excess of 5 thousand songs. Tropical Express made it’s debut early in 1999 and is the only service offering the best of its genres on a weekly basis.
Radio Express: 1994-Present.
Radio Express booth at the 1994 NAB con-vention.
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Consulting: Puerto Rico - Uno Radio
After moving to Los Angeles, the Salsoul organization requested ongoing consul-tation to maintain the rat-ings and sales dominance of the stations. In additon, prepared bank presentations for acquisions such as the ML/WIN Puerto Rican operation in 1997 and the Ponce Broadcasting purchase in 1999. Stations have grown form 2 FM’s and one AM to 6 FM’s and 6 AM’s cover all of Puerto Rico with three networks.
Luis Soto (Letf) President of Uno Radio Group and Jesús Soto (below) CEO, have built an organization that com-mands 29.8 % of the 25-54 audience in all Puerto Rico.
Arbitron entered Puerto Rico in 1998, and began continuous measuerement in 1999. Puerto Rico, with a 12+ population of 3,122,000 is the 13th largest market in the US. WPRM, the San Juan part of the Salsoul Network, simulcasts on WIVA-Mayagüez and WRIO-Ponce. Together, in the May Arbitrneds, they had a #1 13.8 share of the market. Co-owned Radio Fidelity (WFID-WZAR-WFDT simulcast) had a 7.7, good for #2).
Puerto Rico can not be covered by a single signal. Several decades ago, the concept of simulcast net-works was developed to use several stations with the same programming to cover the entire market. WPRM was the fi rst FM net, dating to 1982.
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Consulting: Argentina - Mega 98.3In late 1999, Emmis International requested consulting services for
its new acquisitions in Argentina. A research project was fi elded and a new format for bottom-dwelling “FM News” was developed. The new format made its debut on April 24, 2000.... Mega 98.3 “Puro Rock Nacional” thus becoming the fi rst 100% Spanish language rock station in the world!
Buenos Aires is a market of over 15 million persons. There are over 30 licensed stations, plus
an average of another 30 pirates (the #1 polition in the IBOPE
survey goes to pirates). Against this steep and entrenched com-
petiton, and with only a week lead-in, Mega 98.3 fl ew to #1
20-54 with its exciting local rock format.
The new Mega logo is presented by
the station ad agency
AE.
Mega, and its sister AM news/talk Radio 10, are located int he Palermo section of Buenos
Aires. Radio 10, a 100,000 watt AM, is #1 overall in Argentina.
EMMIS’ Buenos Aires Mega 98.3 Goes from ‘Worst to First’ in 30 DaysINDIANAPOLIS, June 20, 2000 EMMIS Communications Corporation (Nasdaq: EMMS - news) today announced that their newly-launched Mega 98.3 in Buenos Aires, Argentina, jumped from the bottom of the market to #2 overall, and #1 in the crucial 20 to 54 demographic.``Considering that we were on the air only a week when the ratings period began, I would say this has been one of the most amazing ratings success stories I have ever seen,’’ said Randall Bongarten, President of EMMIS International.Bongarten said that the station, which went on the air April 24 with its new Rock Nacional format, was number one in sev-eral day parts and had a 13.1 FM share overall.``By applying the skills we have acquired in American radio and by understanding and respecting cultures in other coun-tries, we have developed a great formula for success,’’ EMMIS Chairman and CEO Jeff Smulyan said. ``Randy and his team have done an incredible job.’’Radio 10, also EMMIS-owned, is the number one AM in Buenos Aires with a 31.9 percent total share of the AM audi-ence -- a more than 12 point lead over its nearest competition.EMMIS International announced the acquisition of the two stations in Novem-ber, 1999. The company also holds a majority interest in the #1 radio network in Hungary, Slager Radio.
